There may also be some inaccuracies, since English is not my native language.
Essentially, TBATE is first translated from English into my native language — and in that process, some details are already altered to make it more understandable for us. Now I'm taking that adapted (and somewhat distorted) version, revising it, rewriting it, and then translating it back into English.
I hope you'll point out any mistakes in the text that I might have missed.
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Third-person view
When the pillar of blue light faded, the two women-like creatures could make out the silhouettes of three figures. Arthur's heart beat faster with excitement as another piece of information was confirmed.
The light went out completely, leaving only three figures standing in the center of the room—two men and one woman.
The larger of the two men was dressed in a mixture of plate and leather armor, which did nothing to hide his bulging muscles. In each hand he held a spiked mace, both dripping with blood, matching the color of his short crimson hair.
The slimmer man was built like an athlete, with broad shoulders and toned arms beneath a silver suit of polished metal.
The woman had red eyes that shone like crystals beneath a veil of dark blue hair, and she was the first to notice them.
After she turned to examine Lucius and Arthur, it took only a moment for the two men beside her to notice Lucius and then Arthur, and when they did, their reaction was far less restrained than the woman's.
The larger one swung his mace, splattering blood on the ground as he approached them, while the second man drew a long sword from thin air and stood between Lucius and the girl. His sharp eyes narrowed, and a quiet vibration emanated from his blade.
Arthur closed his eyes, afraid they would see that he was awake.
"Damn it, what should we do, Regis?"
"Lie still! You're no match for anyone right now."
"He'll kill me!"
"Wait, Lucius said it would be like this! Don't move until I say so. I know it might not be true, but we don't have a choice!"
Arthur cracked one eye open and saw a giant of a man looming over him. In the next moment, he felt as if someone had knocked on the door of his mental space. Then, suddenly, he sensed a connection.
The next instant, Lucius's voice resounded inside his mind.
"Arthur, lie still. Neither you nor I can do much right now. They will leave as soon as they realize we can't harm them."
"How did you get into our mental space?" Regis hissed in their heads, anticipating Arthur's question.
"I told you that I tied you to the system, and at the moment of your formation, I gained this ability," Lucius said calmly, despite the situation.
Speaking from behind her companion, the woman said, "Leave them alone, these girls won't harm us."
"Pff! She thinks you're girls!" Regis thought, giggling in their minds.
"Shut up," Arthur snapped.
"Well, I think that was to be expected, considering that my physique is very similar to Arthur's," Lucius said to Regis without a hint of concern.
"They may pose a threat to us on the lower levels, Lady Caera," warned the large man. "There are those who pretend to be weak to make us lower our guard."
"Have pity on them, Tegen. The fact that none of you could sense them right away means that their mana core has been destroyed," the woman replied. "They will not be a threat. Let's go. We'll rest in the next room, the shelter."
Tegen grunted in dissatisfaction before turning around and following the other two.
Arthur Leywin POV
I mentally exhaled with relief and began to relax, then saw what Lucius was talking about: all three of their outfits were specially designed to expose their spines, covered only by chain mail or thin mesh through which I could see clearly. And along all three backs, along their spines, were the same runes I had seen on so many Alacryan mages.
Anger flared in my chest unconsciously despite the warnings, and immediately a man named Tegen turned to face me.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, forcing myself to be calm and still so that my heartbeat slowed and my mind sank into the empty, emotionless state I so often assumed as King Grey.
Time seemed to crawl as the Alacryan studied me, confused.
"Let's go!" another man called to Tegen, and the crimson-haired warrior turned back toward the rune-covered doors.
When the doors slammed shut, Lucius stood up abruptly, scrambling out of the stones, and calmly met my questioning gaze, stretching from side to side. "You can get up, Arthur. Usually, you can't go back just because you want to, so they're 100% gone."
I stood up carefully, holding Sylvie's stone. "Are you sure that's true?"
Lucius nodded his head, replying with a hint of mischief. "Yes, ordinary mages cannot return at will, only the main character who makes the aether core can do so at will."
"Wow, that made my little black heart beat faster!" exclaimed Regis, flying out of my body. "It's good that this magnificent woman has a heart as big as her..."
"Regis!" I barked.
The wandering spark swayed, flickering with delight. "Well, someone's upset about being called a girl..."
"No, I..."
"You can check your pants if you want. You're still physiologically male," Regis interrupted.
"I agree with Regis, she's even more beautiful than the book described her. Now I understand his enthusiasm," Lucius said, joining our conversation.
The flickering flame seemed to burn brighter. "Now I like you! You have good taste!" Regis said excitedly.
Lucius nodded his head, satisfied.
"I believe you a little, but why are you so fixated on this girl?" I asked, changing the subject and starting a conversation with Lucius.
"Because she's one of the main characters in this arc. She's a student of Scythe Seris, who saved you from Uto, and she's also a fanatic these Relictombs. According to the plot, she'll be around you a lot, and you'll even steal one of the artifacts together, so she's a very good character. Oh, right, fans often ship her with you, hoping that you'll end up together."
I choked on his tone and gaze.
"Wow," Regis whistled, his eyes twinkling.
"Arthur," Lucius' tone made both Regis and me look at him, "you feel it yourself, but as I said, our bodies are very vulnerable right now, so let's focus on not losing the opportunities we have."
I met Regis's gaze first, then Lucius's, and with a sigh, I nodded firmly.
Lucius smiled a satisfied smile.
"Close your eyes and focus. Right now, there is a map of four ancient ruins in your head, and fortunately, in mine too. Check it out."
Closing my eyes, I imagined the location of the four ancient ruins that Sylvia had told me about. It wasn't some kind of internal map laid out for visualization. It was more like an artificial memory embedded in my brain. This confirmed for me what Lucius had said earlier: we were inside one of the four ancient ruins.
Seeing all this, I nodded to Lucius as if to tell him to continue.
"For starters, while I'm talking, you can show me a couple of fighting techniques, since I'm dead weight right now."
"You're quite honest," Regis remarked.
"What did you expect? I'm from a world similar to Grey's, but without ki, and I grew up in a place where there was no need to learn how to fight, or so I thought, at least," he said in a rather honest tone, his eyes becoming slightly sad, as did his tone. "The most I ever did was kick my younger brother when he was really annoying."
"...I see," Regis's fire wavered.
Since I wanted to find out what was going on with my body myself, I carefully put down Sylvie's stone and started with some simple punches. After doing a series of martial arts moves and forms to warm up my clumsy new body, I looked up at Lucius. His eyes were eagerly following my movements, but when he noticed my gaze, he started talking.
"All right, I'll start by giving you some information that you will either learn later or confirm now, so here goes." He sat down next to the marble fountain.
"Right now, your body contains the blood of djinn (ancient mages), human, basilisk, and dragon. This new body attracts aether very strongly, as does Regis himself. You can check this by focusing your eyes as if you were trying to read small print, and you will see it."
So I did. A second later, I saw small clusters of aether before my eyes.
After waiting a couple of seconds, Lucius continued, shifting his gaze to the door. "Behind this door will be your first test. It's a few large chimeras. Let me repeat your description from the book.
I had taken only about ten steps when the statues around me began to crack like eerie eggs. Large fragments of stone broke off and fell to the floor... and as more and more statues began to crumble, I could see what was inside them. Stringy humanoid creatures covered in scabs of flesh exposing patches of muscle and bone writhed inside the coffin-like statues, apparently awakened by some magic that controlled this place. They did not carry the weapons depicted on their statues; instead, the weapons were grafted onto them or grew out of them: elongated bones and exposed muscle fibers twisted into the shape of spears, swords, and other instruments of death.
"Sounds creepy," Regis muttered, and I agreed with him.
"Your current body can consume aether directly through your mouth, and the first creature that hatched shot a couple of arrows at you, but when you saw the aether, you kind of consumed it from the arrow and regenerated rapidly. Next, all you need to do is quickly fill your body with aether from the arrow you ate and, directing Regis to your right hand, deliver a powerful blow to somehow kill this thing and drag it into this sanctuary before the other chimeras wake up, because if they all wake up, there is a chance that they will merge into a single creature, becoming a boss."
"Arthur, you need Regis because he attracts aether, plus your new body allows you to move aether more efficiently within your body, and as soon as Regis is in your dominant hand, the aether will merge there, and that's how you'll be able to open the door to the sanctuary back. This phenomenon, by the way..."
"will help create an aether core," I finished for him, to which Lucius nodded.
"Your body sees aether as a necessity, and the aether in your body tries to fix it, to make it better. So, by gathering enough aether from the chimera, you will trick the aether by sticking an arrow right into your mana core and forcing Regis to fly in there, which will concentrate the aether in one point, and boom, the aether core is ready. "
"Wow! I knew it! I was magnificent, but such a level of awesomeness simply cannot exist! I was great as soon as I was born!" Regis said proudly, inflating his ether body.
Deep down, I agreed that this ability would be very helpful to me both now and in the future.
Ignoring his vanity, Lucius continued.
"Although it sounds simple, everything that happened to you before was directed by fate to get exactly what we have now. Fate itself wants you to be able to get the aether core. But as much as I want to tell you more, it's just not necessary right now."
I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. He was right. Now I had to create an aetheric core so that I wouldn't die. Fate was still far away.
"By the way, you two are going together," he said out of nowhere.
"Hey, why?" Regis said, flying next to us.
"Because the zone may become stronger," he decided to explain, seeing our questioning looks. "The number and complexity of zones vary depending on the ascendant. Relictombs adapts to the abilities of the ascendants within a certain zone, and with two bodies predisposed to aether and an aetheric wolf, I don't even know what could happen. By the way, after you forge the aetheric core, it will become even more noticeable."
Shrugging slightly, he continued, "As I said, I have a system, and I can increase your and Regis's potential and get a share of what you get. Once you get this body, the zone will adjust to make it a test, and I won't be able to pass that test because, if I explain it in numbers, this body gives a danger level of 1500, but because I don't know how to fight, my real level is around 100, purely because of the innate strength of this body, which will raise the level of the monsters you will be fighting alone."
I gasped, "I see, so you want to increase my potential, get the ether core from it, and increase your power."
Lucius shook his head. "Not exactly. You and I need help. I'll give you knowledge of the future from the book and increase your potential, and in return, I'll get strength, and I want you to improve my fighting skills a little in the next zone. And until I die, your potential will be doubled. It's a mutually beneficial exchange, don't you think?"
Several scenarios played out in my head, but after thinking it over, I couldn't find a single downside to this cooperation. Standing up to my full height, I extended my right hand to him. I had grown taller; I noticed that my height was now about 187 cm.
"I agree to increase my potential and tell you everything I know. In return, I will do everything possible to help you increase your strength and teach you to control it to the best of my ability."
Lucius smiled faintly and slowly stood up, and although I had grown taller, I only now realized how much taller he was than me. He was over two meters tall, but his figure was thin and V-shaped, not gigantic, just tall. His right hand squeezed mine. His white hand was even whiter than mine, and in that instant, an electric current ran through my body.
"Ugh!" I jerked my hand away and glanced at Lucius, who smiled exaggeratedly for a few moments.
"The deal is done. What you just felt was an increase in your potential."
"What about me? I want to increase my potential too," Regis said, flying in front of Lucius's face.
Lucius just smiled and touched Regis's finger. At that moment, Regis jumped back as if he had been electrocuted. "It's done."
"Before you start, let me repeat how you made the ether core," he said, blinking his cat-like eyes.
Meeting Regis's gaze and then running my hand over the stone of Sylv, I nodded firmly, deciding that I would bring her back to life no matter what, and also return to my family as soon as I became strong enough.
"I'm ready."